Sharing a gift of joy

Sunday

Dec 23, 2012 at 6:00 AM

Robert Nemeth

Depressed by that horrible tragedy in a Connecticut elementary school, I had a hard time choosing a topic for my next column that was to appear a couple of days before Christmas. I didn’t want to write about the killing of 26 people, including 20 small children in their classrooms, for what is there to say that hasn’t been said, time and again, about this gun-crazed society where the killer’s own gun-packing mother was known to take her son to target practice and then became a target herself?

I was looking for something cheerful when I remembered my recent encounter with Tony King at the Pucker Gallery on Newbury Street in Boston. He and his wife, Judy, had a joint exhibition of their respective art there: his photography and her collages. When asked what he was doing these days, he replied: “I’m publishing small books for little children.”

They come in two sizes: The smaller ones, called “Look Around Books,” measure just 4 by 2 ½ inches, and the larger ones, titled “Going Home Books, are 7 by 5 inches. “The little ones are to encourage children to pay attention to out-of-doors, and the larger ones are to celebrate and share what pleasure and fun I’ve had living when and where I have,” he explained.

Illustrated by his striking photography, these booklets are both entertaining and enlightening. The introduction to the “Look Around Books” states the mission: “Each of these small books aims to help children make friends with their large-capacity, our large-capacity. When a child feels at home out-of-doors, he or she lives in a mansion.”

The tiny books, with photos in living color, have different themes. “Bluebird Neighborhood” is all about birds, their habitats and mating habits. “Bluebirds have winning personalities and can be a bit like people – brave and timid, foolish and smart,” one caption says. “Sometimes a bluebird in flight makes you feel like you’re with an angel,” declares another. “Bluebirds stitch and weave our neighborhood together with their flights and lightning flashes of blue.”

Another booklet, “Found in Florida,” is about the wildlife in the Sunshine State, described as “one of the best places on large-capacity to see exotic creatures and fantastic plants.” A picture of a cluster of tall trees comes with the observation: “Palm trees argue with the wind but have the wisdom to be flexible.” A picture of predator birds carries the comment: “To catch food, you have to be quiet and quick. To survive you must pay attention.”

Another tiny book, “A Patch of the Desert,” has the picture of a cowboy gazing into a distant landscape. “When you are on horseback, you get to see a lot,” goes the caption. A separate booklet, “Salt Marsh,” is devoted to one of Mr. King’s favorite subjects, the world of wetlands and their many creatures.

The slightly larger “Going Home Books” are in black-and-white photography, a genre that fully exposes the author’s unique artistry. These pictures are more personal and intimate, depicting in great detail friends, relatives, strangers, as well as places and things. Theme categories include “Rural Structures,” “Portraits” and “Women & Children” and more.

“Home is my favorite place,” Mr. King explains. “I feel safe and complete there. But I like to go off on small trips I call “break-aways.” I return home with photographs and stories to share. It was the same when I was a child and returned home with treasures from my ramblings. My room was called “the menagerie” because it was decorated with birds’ nests, sea shells, and once a salamander in a jar.”

The books are published by Time and Quiet Press. (P.O. Box 311, Kennebunkport, ME 04046). “The ‘Going Home’ series will finish itself off at something like 10,” he told me. “I’m going to continue the series about nature for children for whatever forever means for me.”

Born in Canada, Bruce Anthony King was a small child when he became familiar with Worcester, where his maternal grandfather owned a business. When he was 11 and about to leave for summer camp, his mother gave him a Kodak Brownie camera to record his experiences. “Although I didn’t realize it for many years, in that moment I was handed my future,” he recalled. While he was turning into a successful photo artist, author and lecturer, he kept active in the family business, Washburn-Garfield Co., and when his grandfather died in 1961, he took over as president. He ran the company until 1986, when he sold it to his top manager.

He married his childhood sweetheart, Judy Stoddard, the daughter of industrialist Robert W. Stoddard. I got to know Tony King quite well in the 1980s when, as editor of the Sunday Telegram, I invited him to contribute photo essays to Sunday Morning magazine. We spent long hours poring over photographs and words about his favorite subjects – horses and cowboys in Wyoming and Nevada, creatures of New England swamps and the great oak tree behind his home in Southboro.

Affluence did not spoil Tony King but allowed him to stroll through life with camera in hand, poetry in his heart, and a desire to search for true meaning and lasting beauty around us. And when he finds such gifts, his greatest joy is to spread them around.